HAPPY HALLOWEEN

The "Magic Happens Garden" is all dressed up for Halloween,

Los Dias de los Muertos and All Souls Day as well it seems.
Because if you look closely you'll find amidst
the scarecrow gal, ghost gulch decorations
and a trinity of perfect leaf piles in the gutter

a "Rest In Peace" tombstone for a furry loved one, Daisey

and there is another RIP and tribute for beloved Jay-
"father, uncle, companion, friend".
I think Daisey and Jay are together, joyfully reunited and busy 
making the brilliant blue sky a little brighter
and helping loved ones put smiles on their pumpkins.

Fall Frolic

The sky can be so blue it almost hurts my eyes.

The autumn light is so incandescent it makes everything shine.

The wind inspires the leaves to dance and my paws to prance.

She says,

Play in the leaves all you like.

But PLEASE don't eat berries.

  

 I prefer acorns anyway. Better crunch and less barfing.

Squirrel Invasion

     I always yowl at the squirrels when they taunt me on the fire escape. I hate them and not just because they have thumbs. Over the past few days those dirty rascals found a way into the attic and wall space and tormented us from every angle.  From the sounds of it at first they were busy on renovations to make their winter home cozy.  Then they became frantic when they discovered their entrance had been closed off by a helpful maintenance man. There was thrashing and bashing and skittering; bumping and thumping; chewing, chomping and clawing. For God's sake stay off the electrical wires! Your soul will go straight to heaven. But the smell of your death will be with us for months.
     There are a lot of rules for getting rid of squirrels for people. Rules that seem silly to dogs. Hunt them down and drive them out! That was my strategy. Luckily I was not alone. My excessive sharp barking, pawing and whining I finally drove them down to the second floor where Harley and her people live and she employed my tactic. Eventually Harley went down to the basement with her people and the landlord to do a "squirrel check". Earlier in the day a tenant had been accosted by a squirrel while doing laundry. The people looked and looked but couldn't find the perpetrator. But Harley had sniffed the crafty culprit out.  She signaled the people by standing near and whining at the trash can.  They eventually got a clue and came over.  As they peered in - out popped a squirrel who then ran out the open window as the people screamed and Harley wagged triumphantly.
     During our nose to nose 'post mortem' conversation, we always have a chat about house happenings through the crack under her door when I am in the hall, Harley mentioned that the squirrel flipped her off as he darted out the window. I don't doubt it. It's that kind of attitude that brews my dislike of them.

Two paws up for Harley!!

We love you. That's why we left you cookies in the mailbox.
Your Mom said your "getting a big head".  I think you should.
Nice work.

Sunday Dog Psalm #13

Three things can not long be hidden:
the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Gautama Siddharta

 

God is the sun and His rays fall upon your heart,

not impeded by the clouds of egoism,
the lotus blooms and petals unfold.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence

see how the stars, the moon, the sun, how they move in silence...

we need silence to be able to touch souls.

Mother Theresa

Zzzzst

I'd heard of stray dogs but not "stray voltage".

Who knew that street and traffic lights, fire call boxes, phone booths, manhole covers, service boxes, and even decorative lighting can harbor stray voltage.

Don't let your "marking" be your undoing.

Avoid the ZAP.  Stay off metal!

 

Visit StreetZaps for the full scoop!

Get out your coat

When the frost is on the pumpkin and the snow is on the ground

if you don't have a thick natural coat like me

 

then it is time to break out the winter coats

for your thin furred friends like greyhounds and whippets.

Available on Etsy.

No Worries

People are always worrying about what will happen next. We dogs know that this is futile which is why we are keenly focused on what is happening now. Even if that now appears to be "nothing" or nothing special. But all of that "nothing" is actually extraordinarily special. All those hours I spend sprawled in extreme comfort behind my closed eye lids I am seeing deep into the now of this moment and this great meditation allows me to see into the goodness of the future and all its potential glory.  When I dream deeply and you can see my paws run across air I am traveling to the farthest reaches of time and harmony. Even if I had words to use they would not be sufficient to tell you what I know.  All I can do to communicate this knowledge is to show you by delighting in the ordinary, demonstrating joy, love and acceptance, sniffing out happiness in the mundane. I am trying to teach you not to worry. Just be here now. Say, "I am alive. I am wonderful. I am. I am."  This thought is my constant companion and guide. With it worry finds no home in me.  And without worry there is no room for dread and so there is all the time and space necessary for grace and peaceful living.

Dogs in Art

My friend Spot

is a big Gauguin fan

 

And so am I because Gauguin said,

"I shut my eyes in order to see."

 

And that's what I do too.

Hope

 

I hope that lovely cement labrador fills his basket up with

biscuits and raw hides for Halloween.

Pretty is as Pretty does

Usually when I go out I go "ah-natural" because

I have such a glorious coat in such a dreamy color.

But some days I struggle to get out of bed and need a boost.

Those are the days my Mikimoto Pearls give me confidence.

Things have meaning.
Pearls symbolize purity and spiritual transformation.

They remind me to be honest, pure, wise and
to walk with the utmost dignity.

Not to mention they highlight the white blaze on my chest

in a most fabulous way!

 

 Should I wear them with the knee high stiletto boots?

Naw, it will take 2 pairs and by the end of the day
my paws will hurt.

Dog Psalm #12

Alphabet of Grace

"...out of silence prayer happens: waking at night when the silence in your room is no deeper than the silence in yourself because for a moment all thought is stilled and you do not know where you are or possibly even who you are, and then out of this noplace and nobody that is you, out of that silence your flesh shells, the prayer comes - O Thou - out of silence, addressed to silence, then returning to silence like the holy syllable OM where it is the silence encircling the sound that is itself most holy."

Frederick Buechner

Dog's Honest Truth

TOP TEN
Reasons 

TO NOT 

have an affair with David Letterman

10.  Those bozos from TMZ are now destined to be your very "best buds".
9.    You will wind up testifying before a jury and there won't be anything "Grand" or private about it.
8.    Size AND stamina DO matter; open heart surgery may improve performance, but nothing can really turn back the hands of time.  Be advised: Carpel Tunnel Syndrome and TMJ are debilitating.
7.    Co-workers will quickly grow weary of reminding you to wipe your mouth.
6.    We live in a topsy-turvey world.  You may be subject to elder abuse charges.
5.    He used the word "Hinkey" or is that "Hinky?".  Whatever.
4.    It really pisses his wife off.
3.    It makes his son very sad.
2.    He refers to your affair as a "terrible thing" among other, as yet undisclosed, terrible things.
1.    He refers to HIMSELF as "creepy".

TOP TEN
Reasons 
TO 

have an Affair with David Letterman.

10.  It would make Barbara Walters so proud.
9.    When Dave's not around you can crack the writers up with "saggy ball sack" jokes.
8.    Monica Lewinsky needs partners for her floundering purse business.
7.    Nothing earns your colleagues "respect-like acquiescent deferral" better than stumping the boss.
6.    He's rarely snide or mean when moaning in pleasure.
5.    Madeline Albright just might send you a signed copy of "Read My Pins".
4.    It probably means you don't have to sleep with Leslie Moonves.
3.    All that suffering in middle school wasn't for nothing.  Here's an opportunity to put some of your real life skills to work and finally embrace the teachings of your culture.
2.    Your resume might be thin, but your references are terrific!

1.    A high profile love child could easily replenish your devastated 401K.

Banned Books Week

What you wonder are Banned Books?
They are books that have been challenged and consequently removed from public school libraries.

Included on this dangerous list is

Winnie the Pooh.  Charolott's Web.  Captain Underpants
To Kill A Mocking Bird, The Call of the Wild, The Lord of the Flies

most of Toni Morrison's work, some of Maya Angelou's work,
Steinbeck, Heminway, Faulkner, Joyce,
Capote, Rushdie, Mailer, Miller, Updike,
on and on...
There are 100 titles on the list
all either banned, challenged or in the process of being censored.

Ironically it is a "MUST READ" List.

I'm so glad no one is censoring my reading

and I can read as I please.